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Post by La Goon on Apr 3, 2010 12:23:45 GMT
Could the Seed Bismuth be GC's equivalent of the Philosopher's Stone - or perhaps more likely; one of the steps for creating it?
In German and the Scandinavian languages the Philosopher's stone is called "the Stone of the Wise" ("Stein der Weisen" in German and "De vises sten/stein" in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian). Probably the same thing is the case in other languages I don't know of. I guess that's closer to the original meaning then...
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Post by Mezzaphor on Apr 3, 2010 13:25:56 GMT
Also, something I forgot to add. As I wrote, lead symbolized the human body with all of its faults and impurities, a very primal thing. It's also the symbol of the protectors of Gunnerkrigg Court. Any connection there? Lead also shields against radiation. I always assumed that lead in the context of the Court's dragon slayer is mainly a symbol of protection.
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Post by solarn on Apr 3, 2010 14:14:39 GMT
Also, something I forgot to add. As I wrote, lead symbolized the human body with all of its faults and impurities, a very primal thing. It's also the symbol of the protectors of Gunnerkrigg Court. Any connection there? Lead also shields against radiation. I always assumed that lead in the context of the Court's dragon slayer is mainly a symbol of protection. Makes sense, but then why would they use the alchemical symbol for it?
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Post by Mezzaphor on Apr 3, 2010 22:25:21 GMT
Because, to my knowledge, the only symbol for lead that doesn't derive from alchemy is Pb, which really doesn't look as impressive on a building's facade or a suit of armor. The Court may be a bunch of scientists, but they clearly have an eye for good design as well.
I don't mean to discount the possibility of some alchemical symbolism behind the Dragon Slayer wearing the lead symbol. (Really, most of what I know about alchemy, I learned from people here.)
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Post by La Goon on Apr 3, 2010 22:39:30 GMT
Kat has an extraordinary - even supernatural? - flair for technology. This stems from something divine - something that the robots are sensitive to and which makes her an angel to them. It just seams so obvious now - am I the first one to make that connection? Nah, the content of this forum is huge. There's probably something I missed somewhere... Edit: With "obvious" I mean an obvious possibility - not an obvious fact ![::)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/eyesroll.png)
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Post by warrl on Apr 6, 2010 19:41:58 GMT
Zimmingham is Gunnerkrigg Court.
Probably some time in the future. Or a possible future, anyway.
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Post by Tierra Y Libertad on Apr 7, 2010 5:14:19 GMT
In response to Tom's tweet -- I really, really hope you are still here in five years. I will continue to read this comic every day it updates until it ends, I die, or whichever comes first, as long as I have access to the Internet.
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Post by Tierra Y Libertad on Apr 17, 2010 7:59:34 GMT
Sorry about the double post, but I find it interesting that Kat loves her Agent Scully action figure. Antimony/Kat=Mulder/Scully. I expect the two will be blended more as the strip continues but that is the current characterisation.
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Fen
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Post by Fen on Apr 21, 2010 16:50:35 GMT
Hmm. The power station drains Etheric energy from the surroundings. It also causes Zimmy to go all major-reality-warp. According to Rey, to collect Etheric energy in that way is to 'meddle with the fabric of reality'.
These things feel like they connect up in some way...
Also I'll conject that a lack of etheric energy = bad for Zimmy. Her condition is aggravated by etheric energy being sucked away and suppressed by normal rain but not station-rain - normal rain is 'natural', and so has etheric energy in it? Station-rain would have had its etheric energy sucked out and so wouldn't work? Her thing's also suppressed by close proximity to etherically gifted people, and only the apparently non-etheric person came back from Birminghell with a passenger.
Maybe etheric energy stops the whole world from becoming Birminghell?
I dunno, just babbling randomly.
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Post by La Goon on Apr 22, 2010 9:47:20 GMT
The station filters etheric energy. I wonder where the "waste products" go. If it's led into the artificial rain I guess this would make it not merely empty of ether but etherically toxic. Most of the rain seams to go back into the lake, so as the experiment is repeated the lake would accumulate etheric waste... I too am not completely sure where I'm going with this line of speculation ![:-/](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/undecided.png)
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Post by warrl on Apr 22, 2010 19:01:29 GMT
The station filters etheric energy. I wonder where the "waste products" go. If it's led into the artificial rain I guess this would make it not merely empty of ether but etherically toxic. Most of the rain seams to go back into the lake, so as the experiment is repeated the lake would accumulate etheric waste... I too am not completely sure where I'm going with this line of speculation ![:-/](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/undecided.png) My guess: you aren't going diving in that lake.
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Ruushi
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Post by Ruushi on Apr 29, 2010 0:43:23 GMT
Real life ->->Comic I saw a license plate that said JEANNE
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Fen
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Post by Fen on May 3, 2010 11:08:28 GMT
'nother random speculation regarding Zimmy's etheric appearance: when Annie looks at Zimmy in Ether-vision, she's actually going to look no different to normal. When Annie was in Birminghell, her etheric-only scar appeared on her cheek, so it seems that etheric appearances become your actual appearance while you're over there. All Zimmy got was a change of clothes.
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Post by legion on May 3, 2010 12:56:44 GMT
That reminds me that a common kind of nightmare I have is kind of like those Zimmy has as hallucination: reviving past situations I was glad were behind me.
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ding
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Post by ding on May 3, 2010 16:31:03 GMT
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Post by Casey on May 3, 2010 16:39:43 GMT
His name is Aata, and... what??
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Post by fjodor on May 5, 2010 7:49:28 GMT
Could there be an aether <-> anti-aether thing going on, much like matter <-> anti-matter?
Suppose Zimmy's powers/abilities stem from a source of anti-aether. It would explain why Rey - a creature of aether - calls her a demon. Rain could work as a natural 'neutraliser' for Zimmy, temporarily restoring her aether balance. It would also explain why Annie (mistress of Aether) has a 'neutralising' effect on Zimmy's fits. If that theory is right, Gamma may become a much more important figure later because she has that same effect on Zimmy.
Also, this theory could mean that Zimmyham is a portal to the anti-aether world. The incident that drew Jack in there may have disrupted his natural aether-anti-aether balance. If Zimmy and Jack are going to 'settle' things, that would lead to one big explosion of anti-aether, and with the power station sucking out aether, that could mean the overall balance cannot be restored. Things of anti-aether will enter the Court and the Forest.
Here's hoping for Armageddon! :-)
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Post by todd on May 5, 2010 10:52:47 GMT
Some time ago (I forget exactly where it was) somebody made a list of the various alchemical states and processes, starting with fire and water - I forget the rest, but I know there were more. We know that Annie's linked to fire and Kat to water from the First Treatise Page.
Annie's current plight has led some readers to question whether she'll be allowed at liberty for a while. Obviously it would cause the strip problems if she gets locked up in prison or expelled - unless Tom then shifted the role of protagonist to Kat. But even then, Kat needs a foil (Robot and Shadow2 don't seem entirely up to it) - and the story will need someone with etheric qualities, which Kat lacks. Which got me speculating. This probably won't happen in the webcomic, but still:
In the aftermath of the power station incident and Annie's arrest, a new girl arrives at the Court and is placed in Queslett North Year 8, a girl with etheric talents if of a different nature than Annie's, linked to the third alchemical element (which I forget). (One tempting possibility would be to make her the daughter of Brinnie by a human, and thus half-Valkyrie.) The girl notices Kat in a bleak mood (the combination of losing her best friend with the shock of discovering the truth about Gunnerkrigg's origins back in Chapter Twenty-five; we know that the latter had already darkened her disposition, and to have this happen to Annie on top of it....), reaches out to her, and begins to heal her; the two of them at last take over the work that Annie had begun (complete with the new girl being enrolled in the medium classes, once the Court finds out the details of her abilities). Of course, her skills and character would have to be handled in such a way that she wouldn't seem like an "Annie substitute", but a new figure in her own right.
As I said above, I don't seriously think Tom will go this route, but this speculation would certainly fit the thread.
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Fen
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Post by Fen on May 5, 2010 17:37:57 GMT
Could there be an aether <-> anti-aether thing going on, much like matter <-> anti-matter? Suppose Zimmy's powers/abilities stem from a source of anti-aether. It would explain why Rey - a creature of aether - calls her a demon. Rain could work as a natural 'neutraliser' for Zimmy, temporarily restoring her aether balance. It would also explain why Annie (mistress of Aether) has a 'neutralising' effect on Zimmy's fits. If that theory is right, Gamma may become a much more important figure later because she has that same effect on Zimmy. Also, this theory could mean that Zimmyham is a portal to the anti-aether world. The incident that drew Jack in there may have disrupted his natural aether-anti-aether balance. If Zimmy and Jack are going to 'settle' things, that would lead to one big explosion of anti-aether, and with the power station sucking out aether, that could mean the overall balance cannot be restored. Things of anti-aether will enter the Court and the Forest. Here's hoping for Armageddon! :-) I wondered about that, too: specifically, why does Jack wait to use mad spider skills until after the activation of the power plant? Does lack of aether make him stronger?
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Fen
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Post by Fen on May 14, 2010 17:07:45 GMT
Wild Speculation, probably done already: JEANNE AND JONES ARE RELATED
Somehow
I dunno
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Post by Mr Pitchfork on May 14, 2010 22:27:07 GMT
Oh golly was that done to oblivion.
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Post by hal9000 on May 16, 2010 5:53:08 GMT
Some time ago (I forget exactly where it was) somebody made a list of the various alchemical states and processes, starting with fire and water - I forget the rest, but I know there were more. We know that Annie's linked to fire and Kat to water from the First Treatise Page. Annie's current plight has led some readers to question whether she'll be allowed at liberty for a while. Obviously it would cause the strip problems if she gets locked up in prison or expelled - unless Tom then shifted the role of protagonist to Kat. But even then, Kat needs a foil (Robot and Shadow2 don't seem entirely up to it) - and the story will need someone with etheric qualities, which Kat lacks. Which got me speculating. This probably won't happen in the webcomic, but still: In the aftermath of the power station incident and Annie's arrest, a new girl arrives at the Court and is placed in Queslett North Year 8, a girl with etheric talents if of a different nature than Annie's, linked to the third alchemical element (which I forget). (One tempting possibility would be to make her the daughter of Brinnie by a human, and thus half-Valkyrie.) The girl notices Kat in a bleak mood (the combination of losing her best friend with the shock of discovering the truth about Gunnerkrigg's origins back in Chapter Twenty-five; we know that the latter had already darkened her disposition, and to have this happen to Annie on top of it....), reaches out to her, and begins to heal her; the two of them at last take over the work that Annie had begun (complete with the new girl being enrolled in the medium classes, once the Court finds out the details of her abilities). Of course, her skills and character would have to be handled in such a way that she wouldn't seem like an "Annie substitute", but a new figure in her own right. As I said above, I don't seriously think Tom will go this route, but this speculation would certainly fit the thread. You know, you don't really need to bring someone else into the comic to have an etherically-talented foil for Kat. You could just have her team up with George and Andrew and have them go on a mission to clear Annie's good name, while also getting sucked in to other adventures along the way. That would pretty much rule I think.
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Post by todd on May 16, 2010 10:38:07 GMT
Parley and Smith would be difficult companions for Kat; since they're in different years from her (the evidence that we have is that the students only mix with people in their own year and generally their own house; hence Parley's only reason for staying in medium classes), not to mention that she's never even met them and probably has no means of contacting them, an alliance would be unlikely.
Of course, bringing Brinnie's daughter (if she has one) into the comic as a regular might finally solve the problem of those readers who can't accept that Brinnie, and not Jones or Gamma's mother, is the third girl in the photograph; as I've said elsewhere, I think that a lot of that denial stems from the unsymmetrical teaming up of a bit character with five major characters. (Though Brinnie's dramatic departure for - presumably - Asgard did prompt Hyland Senior's nasty crack about the girls, which led in turn to James getting into a fight with him, Mr. Thorn's intervention, and ultimately to the grown-up James's role at the Court - so maybe she did have an important role in the comic after all.)
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Post by La Goon on May 16, 2010 14:34:42 GMT
I've been trying to decide for some time whether this was worth mentioning, and if it should maybe go in "Cool things I only noticed on reread", cause it's not really all that cool - kind of puzzling though... Well, here goes: on this page there is a spider web that isn't actually a spider web. It rather looks like a hatch cover or maybe a large sticker. I wonder if this is part of the actual Birmingham or on behalf of Zimmy's 'curse' (or whatever it is). Could the curse be mocking Zimmy by making some of its illusions obvious? - or if it's a mundane hatch cover/sticker - could it be somehow provoking an outbreak of the 'curse' (i.e. that big spiderlike creature). In that case it could be put there by the gold button guys in order to observe reactions... It may not have any practical relevance. It's probably just an artistic effect to illustrate that Sunny Birmingham is a weird place. Still - it keeps puzzling me...
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Post by hal9000 on May 17, 2010 3:59:24 GMT
Parley and Smith would be difficult companions for Kat; since they're in different years from her (the evidence that we have is that the students only mix with people in their own year and generally their own house; hence Parley's only reason for staying in medium classes), not to mention that she's never even met them and probably has no means of contacting them, an alliance would be unlikely. Annie got along with them well enough despite being in a different year, and "difficult" is generally more interesting. Also, it wouldn't be hard to contrive a meeting, you could have Annie herself tell Kat how to get ahold of them, or have a sympathetic Jones (who believes Annie but can't exonerate her without proof) set things on to the proper course.
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Post by todd on May 17, 2010 10:33:55 GMT
What I meant was "difficult" in the sense of how to get them teamed up with Kat. It's a moot point, in any case, since after this morning's page, it seems that Annie's off the hook.
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Post by lurker on May 17, 2010 19:01:41 GMT
[...]Well, here goes: on this page there is a spider web that isn't actually a spider web. It rather looks like a hatch cover or maybe a large sticker. I wonder if this is part of the actual Birmingham or on behalf of Zimmy's 'curse' (or whatever it is). [...] Hmm, looking at that page again, I notice that the spiderous monstrosity emerging from the wall appears to have a jointed metallic neck (esp. in panels 4 and 5). Might this have something to do with whatever it is the court is trying to do? I'm thinking the integration between etheric energy and court technology. I speculate that whatever is afflicting Zimmy is caused by the court, even if she wasn't at the court before. Whatever the court is doing, esp. with large-scale experiments like the power station, may have caused non-local etheric disturbances that have widespread effects. As stated by Coyote, the court is "mankind's attempt to become god" - probably through the integration of technology with etheric powers. Their experiments in this direction (such as the power station) have caused drastic side-effects such as Zimmingham with its non-occupants and blasphemous monstrosities. No good can come from "meddling with the very fabric of existence", after all. I suspect the anti-etheric stance of the court is merely a front. The PTBs at the court are seriously into ether-technology integration, but for political reasons with Gillitie Wood, they put up an anti-etheric front so that they can isolate themselves. After all, they would even go so far as to murder Jeanne so that her ghost will haunt the Annan Waters, thus strengthening the isolation of the court.
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Post by hal9000 on May 17, 2010 19:11:47 GMT
[...]Well, here goes: on this page there is a spider web that isn't actually a spider web. It rather looks like a hatch cover or maybe a large sticker. I wonder if this is part of the actual Birmingham or on behalf of Zimmy's 'curse' (or whatever it is). [...] Hmm, looking at that page again, I notice that the spiderous monstrosity emerging from the wall appears to have a jointed metallic neck (esp. in panels 4 and 5). Might this have something to do with whatever it is the court is trying to do? I'm thinking the integration between etheric energy and court technology. I speculate that whatever is afflicting Zimmy is caused by the court, even if she wasn't at the court before. Whatever the court is doing, esp. with large-scale experiments like the power station, may have caused non-local etheric disturbances that have widespread effects. As stated by Coyote, the court is "mankind's attempt to become god" - probably through the integration of technology with etheric powers. Their experiments in this direction (such as the power station) have caused drastic side-effects such as Zimmingham with its non-occupants and blasphemous monstrosities. No good can come from "meddling with the very fabric of existence", after all. I suspect the anti-etheric stance of the court is merely a front. The PTBs at the court are seriously into ether-technology integration, but for political reasons with Gillitie Wood, they put up an anti-etheric front so that they can isolate themselves. After all, they would even go so far as to murder Jeanne so that her ghost will haunt the Annan Waters, thus strengthening the isolation of the court. I think a certain demigod named Coyote comprises a large share of those 'political reasons' you mentioned. It seems to me that he's mostly responsible for the Court/Forest divide, and given his overwhelming powers and capricious nature, well...
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Post by spacemilk on May 17, 2010 19:37:17 GMT
Wild Spec: I know a lot of people think something romantic happened with Jones and Eggers, but what if Jones was like a mother figure for Eggers? The stuff she's done has been little things of affection, like running her fingers through his hair. She's obviously been around for a while if Rey knows her; she didn't necessarily have to grow up with Eggers and Surma, she could've been an adult already. Maybe the radical alterations she's made were actually crazy plastic surgeries to keep her looking so young and attractice. ![:P](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/tongue.png) (joke!) In any case, if she wasn't educated at the court (as Tom said on formspring), and if she is neutral with the court (not allied with the forest or the court), then it makes sense that she would've been around for a loooong time. I just don't understand why Surma wouldn't like Jones. Or why Eggers would be disappointed that Jones wouldn't be in the picture; it doesn't make sense for Jones, if she's an adult, to be in a picture that's obviously meant for the young friends. But nor does it make sense for Jones to be in a picture with students if she herself is not a student since she wasn't educated there. Ahhhh so many confusing possibilities!
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Post by weaver on May 18, 2010 1:46:21 GMT
Regarding Jones, if it wasn't for the fact that crossover theories are generally untrue, I'd seriously think she was related to this guy; www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100217No one is entirely sure what he is either. More seriously though, I think that whatever Jones is, it's something weirder then an android. Just a feeling. I also have a feeling that she's older then she looks.
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